It's been a flat-out week - for some reason, the New Year seems to have brought more traffic jams (as if a whole new bunch of people just started work on 2 January) and more work hours. Even though we've recently had two new additions to our team, which technically should mean work is being spread out, right?

No matter, at least there's cable TV in the office, so this happy camper has been getting her fill of the Aussie Open and American Idol. There's also a lot, and I mean a lot, of junk food, which us girls have been devouring at freaky speed (the guys in the office just don't seem to eat).

But that's not what I mean by thievery.

My colleague got her handbag snatched this week. Right in front of the office! It was about 5.20pm and she was opening her car door to get in when a Malay guy who was standing nearby pretending to talk on the phone snatched her bag, ran to an accomplice on a motorbike, and the two sped away.

We were furious.

I actually don't know who was more angry - my poor colleague who lost everything including her spare car keys which happened to be in her bag; my bosses who, as a result, have had to change all the locks in the office and run around looking for padlocks because my colleague had copies of the office keys in her bag; or the rest of us, angry for our colleague, for the inconvenience, for the atrosity, for the knowledge that we will never feel safe from now on. We wanted to inflict pain. Or at least, I and a couple others did.

While we satisfied ourselves with fuming and imagining scenes where we would all miraculously be able to beat up a couple of snatch thieves, my boss rang the stolen mobile phone, and it turns out the _____ (insert rude name here) had not turned off the phone! They canceled my boss' call, and he promptly texted them something along the lines of:

If you fucking come back here again, I'm going to fucking kill you.

Can you believe the punks actually replied? And in English too! Something along the lines of:

I can see you, you can't see me, you can't catch me, ha ha ha!

?!!!?? And then they came back the next day! They rode past the office, stopped and stared inside for a while and then ran off before we could call the cops. If they show their faces again and for some reason we don't quite manage to run them down, we're bringing in the police.

I should also add that this is the second time they've snatched a bag in front of our office, so the entire road is Very Very Angry.

Everyone is now on the watch for two Malay ____ (insert rude name again, feel free to be creative) on a motorbike, one of them dark and small and the other taller and with a moustache, loitering around the area. Unfortunately, that description fits a lot of people.

The day after the incident, another colleague called us from her car at about 6pm.

"I'm in the car already, but there's a Malay guy on a motorbike with a moustache just hanging around outside the office. He's on his mobile phone but he doesn't seem to be doing anything, quite suspicious."

We promptly sent our boss down to investigate, and five minutes later, he came back.

"It's the architect from the firm next door."

Oh.

I think I should invest in a baseball bat.

I like this pic - for soppy reasons. These kids were trying to persuade me to buy their wares for "one dollar", and the little girl on the left demonstrated much entrepreneurial potential when she changed her tune from "three for one dollar" to "four from one dollar" after about three minutes of trailing me.

The boy in the baseball cap gave up pretty quick, but the other boy with the recorder and the girl stuck on for ages! The boy was pretty cute too, he played the recorder to show me how it worked, and I was this close to reaching for my purse to give these kids a dollar each - just for being so cute and for trying so hard.

Then I remembered, Y had all the small notes.

These were the only two kids I seriously considered buying stuff from, firstly because they'd followed me so far off their beat there were no other kids around so no one would be disappointed, secondly because they were really persistent and cute, thirdly because I could always have given away the stuff I bought as souvenirs. Too bad Y had the foresight to only give me big notes. If there's one regret I have from Cambodia, it'd be not buying from these two (forget the boy in the baseball cap).

For the rest of G's pics, go here.

Who?

The boys...

and I.

There was this really cool half hour after Angkor Wat where we tried to climb a massive tree (and got seriously put to shame by the local kids) and actually managed to get up there without killing each other or ourselves, but only Y and G have the pics for that one. That was a cool one, but.

Day 2: Angkor Thom, Bahkeng Mountain

More pretty lasses with hearts of stone. I wonder where they got all these stones to build all these temples from. And how they transported them.

Beautiful, isn't it? This, Bayon Temple, is just one of a whole bunch of temples. We politely - but firmly - refused to visit every single temple within Angkor Thom, and within Siem Reap for that matter. Our poor guide. If you look closely, all four sides of each tower are carved with a woman's face. The faces are all slightly different.

Here's a close-up.

And another. J is not trying to pick up that chick. Though, naturally, we told the guide otherwise.

Sunset at Bahkeng Mountain. We had to climb the steepest steps to get up here for this. We also had to wait some two hours because the guide didn't know what to do with us, seeing as we had refused to go look at more temples.

This is, quite possibly, the most overrated sunset in the world. I mean, it's really beautiful and all, but you should have seen the number of tourists waiting and jostling for a good spot to catch this one. I'm thinking there must have been over 200 people there. Personally, I thought the really steep stairs leading up to this and the trek up and down the mountain were more fun - in typical Y fashion, we refused to walk down the normal path with the mere mortals, we had to beat our path through trails and shortcuts.

Day 2: Ta Prohm Temple

This was by far my favourite of the places we visited. It was just so amazing to see these massive trees growing out of roofs and into ancient temples. Now that I think about it, I never realised trees could be that destructive.

How insanely cool is this?

And this. The movie Tomb Raider was filmed here, by the way.

A temple overgrown.

Amazing doesn't even come close for me.

Day 2: Angkor Wat

It was only 9.30am when we arrived at Angkor Wat, but it was already pretty warm. Luckily for me, I love the sun. We were competing to see who would be the first to whinge about the heat or about all the walking. G lost. He "commented" on the heat before we even got into the van at the airport carpark to go to our hotel!

Angkor Wat is surrounded by this beautiful moat, which I like even better than the temple itself. Of course you could always count on some ignorant prick to litter - I have this major peeve with people who litter and men who spit all over the place.

The bridge across the moat to Angkor Wat. Love these big stones.

And behold... Angkor Wat. It's mindblowing when you realise we're walking in the exact same paths others walked way back in the early 12th century, probably with same sense of wonder.

A closer view. It's actually really commercialised. Signs everywhere, ongoing maintenance... and all us curious tourists.

The entire structure is just covered in carvings. Luckily for us, lots of really talented people had lots of free time on their hands back then.

There are heaps of corridors just like this one too - the walls all covered in carvings that speak of the myths of a long, long time ago. LIke this:

To be honest, we didn't have the patience (or interest) to listen to every single one of the stories. I think our guide was rather disappointed at our lack of enthusiasm for his spoutings.

Another part of Angkor Wat. The place is massive!

A pony all dressed up for the cause of one (or two) dollars.

There are the boys with our guide, the only person in long-sleeves and proper pants. He's a 23-year-old who just finished high school and recently passed his exams to become a certified tour guide. He wants to go to university next year. He also really likes...

J.